ESP Test Deck
by Magic Makers (http://www.magicmakersinc.com/decks/espdeck.html)
Cost
Bought it for 25€, but prices go up to 40€.
What they say
On this DVD you will learn the most amazing ESP effects and routines. Accomplished Mentalist, Rudy T. Hunter, along with Marty Grams will teach you step-by-step everything you need to know about using the ESP Test Deck. This deck will enable you to perform mentalism, parapsychology, and even magic tricks!
Full 56 Card Deck containing:
2 Black Full Sets of Five Standard Cards
(circle, cross, wavy lines, square, star)
2 Red Full Sets
2 Blue Full Sets
2 Green Full Sets
1 Orange Full Set
1 Yellow Full Set
Bonus Cards:
6 Additional Cards, each representing a number between 6 and 11
The Effects
Overview of the Deck and The Basics: Cards are explained and how to stack them for the next few tricks.
The Shiner: Some ways to peek the bottom card.
Encore Card Stab: Spectator cuts the deck behind his back and takes the top card. The magician stabs the deck with a knife and reveals the matching card.
Unimatch: Spectator cuts the deck and takes the top card. The magician takes the deck behind his back and takes a card out of the deck which magically matches the spectator's chosen one.
Marty Grams: ESP Mind Reading: A staple: spectator chooses a card out of the spread deck in the magicians hands and the magician reads the spectators mind.
Rudy T. Hunter: The Prediction: Another staple: the magician places an envelope with a prediction on the table and then shuffles the deck and gives it to the spectator. The spectator deals cards from top, middle or bottom of the deck as long as he likes, redeals them in two piles and the magician shows that both top cards match the prediction in the envelope.
The Box Prediction: Another card prediction, this time the card box holds the prediction, unannounced. The magician holds the deck behind his back and the spectator cuts and turns over top. The magician then shows what the spectator has cut to and reveals the prediction.
The Bet: A variation of the Two Card Monte, is this called a One Card Monte maybe?
Pre-Show Effect: How to use the deck for mind reading using some Pre-Show work.
Match, No Match: Five cards are dealt open onto the table. The spectator then guesses if the next cards dealt from the bottom of the deck will match (or not) the cards on the table and his guesses are marked with coins. He is miraculously right everytime.
The Vibe: The spectator and the magician both get a set of the five different symbol cards. The spectator puts his cards on the table, face up. The magician then puts one of his cards face down onto the table. The spectator guesses the symbol on this card and the card with the corresponding symbol is put onto the face-down card. This is done for all five symbols and the magician then reveals all five guesses to be correct.
Two of a Kind: The magician takes two sets of different coloured cards, shuffles them and places them behind his back. Using his colour-sensitive fingers he then brings in front pair after pair of each symbol.
Ultimate Match-Up: A variation of The Vibe, but this time the deck is shuffled by the spectator. And no sleights involved!
Rudy T. Hunter's Simple Easy ESP: In this 20 minute section of the DVD Rudy T. Hunter explains a simple ESP card reading system and how to do a reading to a spectator. He explains how to lay out five cards that represent five important areas in the life of the spectator (like work, love, health etc) and how to interpret the symbols on these cards for each of the areas. (Did I make myself clear here? It's hard for me to explain such things in english)
Out of this World: Well, it's OOTW
Black and Blue: Spectator and magician each gets a set of the five symbol cards in different colours (blue and black). The spectator then puts down one card of his choice, face down. The magician then puts one of his card on top, also face down. This is done five times and unbelievably all pairs do match!
Difficulty
(1=easy to do, 2=No sleights, but not so easy, 3=Some sleights used, 4=Advanced sleights used, 5=Suitable for experienced magicians only)
Between 1 and 3 I would say. Most tricks are easy to do, but in one trick not a DL but a TL is used, in another one a B****m D**l is required.
Review
I bought this DVD because I wanted to learn some ESP-style tricks. I already have the RRTCM-DVD from this manufacturer and I liked Rudy T. Hunters calm style of teaching, so I thought it a good idea to purchase this DVD.
I was a little disappointed though when I saw that the first tricks used a stacked deck. I like to shuffle the cards in front of the spectator and I'm not yet able to do a false shuffle which leaves the whole deck in the same order. But this concerned only the first few tricks, so that's not a real minus for me.
The DVD includes some staple effects for the use of ESP cards and some good more. So you really get what you expect and in good quality and easy-to-follow explanations. You are also teached how to mark these cards, if you want to do this. And I think it's not the most obvious marking.
What I did not understand was why they put OOTW on this DVD. First, you are told you need another ESP deck to have enough red and black cards to perform the trick, which is annoying. Second, I think that OOTW loses impact when using ESP cards. ESP cards are associated with mindreading, but I see no reason to use a ESP deck here, or to be more precise, two ESP decks. And the spectator may also. This trick only cares about colours, so why use these ESP symbols and not a normal deck? Sure it is a very strong trick, but I don't think it should be on this DVD. But this is a point to debate, I think. Just see it as a nice extra.
The DVD looks very professional, has a simple menu and was filmed in good quality. Also some tricks are divided into more than one chapter, which makes it easy navigating the tricks and explanations.
The deck included is a blue backed Bicycle deck - so you know what to expect.
Overall
All in all I would give this DVD a good 8/10.
